Here’s Representative Anthony Weiner responding to a question about his management skills--and his reputation for high staff turnover--yesterday at the Crain’s business breakfast, which was before the New York Times story reported that he has run through more staff than any other member of the New York House delegation.

“I think I’m tough but I’m fair,” he said, adding, “And I'm cheap.”

In the story, Weiner chalks up his attitude to growing up in Brooklyn as a middle-class kid (always on message!).

City Councilman Lew Fidler, who also grew up middle-class in Brooklyn (and supported Freddy Ferrer over Weiner in the 2005 mayor’s race) told me, “I push my employees too and I haven’t had any turnover in six years.  read more »

Not everyone is happy with the $59.1 billion budget that Michael Bloomberg and the City Council agreed upon last night, which preserved property tax cuts and school aid by cutting funds to cultural programs and senior centers.

“I’m very dissatisfied in terms of calling it a budget negotiation,” Councilman Lew Fidler told me in an interview this morning. “A number of us went to the quote-unquote 'handshake' last night to support the speaker, but not because we thought there was a partnership with the mayor.”

Fidler said Bloomberg "wanted to raise the property taxes.”

Raising property taxes may be necessary if budget revenues continue to decline, Fidler acknowledged.  read more »

City Councilman Mike McMahon, who is running for the congressional seat Vito Fossella is vacating, was endorsed last night by the Staten Island Democratic Party.  read more »

It seems that Christine Quinn has two important factions to please. On one side are the 50 other members of the City Council. On the other are good-government groups and, particularly, The New York Times editorial board.

When Quinn began discussing the slush fund scandal at the City Council, The Times editorial board--a big voice in Democratic primaries for offices like, say, mayor--held out hope that Quinn could set things straight, writing, "[her] reformist zeal is still needed."

The first package of reforms Quinn announced, on April 11, would have stripped the City Council of the ability to determine how $20 million in discretionary money from the council speaker's office is spent, giving that power instead to the mayor's agencies. The Times called it "sensible" but added, "[S]he must do a lot more."

Then, council members objected. Loudly. Strongly.

So this week, Quinn unveiled another set of reforms that are more palatable to her members.

The major difference between Quinn's old plan and new plan is that the new plan leaves a majority of decision-making power with council members. The Times was not pleased:  read more »

Technically, Michael Bloomberg’s $59.1 billion budget increases spending -- albeit by one tenth of one percent -- but the loudest critcism it's facing so far is from officials and interest groups that want him to spend more.  read more »

Councilman Kendall Stewart helped steer taxpayer money the Donna Reid Fund, which not only shares an address in Brooklyn with Stewart's chief of staff Asquith Reid, but allegedly was used to funnel money to Reid and another staff member.

But the relationship between Reid and the Donna Reid Foundation wasn’t a secret.
 read more »]]> Politics Donna Reid Fund Kendall Stewart Lew Fidler Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:31:33 -0400 Azi Paybarah 67956 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2008/chicken-little-was-right

Councilman Lew Fidler spends a lot of time dealing with other people’s misfortune.

He makes his living as the general counsel for LawCash, a company that advances money to people who are expected to win personal-injury settlement suits.

More publicly, in his capacity as an elected official, Mr. Fidler is the self-appointed Chicken Little of the mortgage crisis.  read more »

Just as Christine Quinn began addressing City Council members in a closed-door meeting at City Hall about the appropriation-process reforms she proposed, another member released a statement criticizing those changes as ceding too much power to the mayor.

This is from Jimmy Vacca of the Bronx, and follows last week's sharp rebuke from John Liu and criticism from Lew Fidler:  read more »

Councilman Lew Fidler of Brooklyn has a number of concerns about the "historic reforms" Christine Quinn announced at a press conference earlier in the day. Fidler said he does not object to spirit of what Quinn said—aiming for greater transparency—but he thinks the mechanisms will harm too many small groups.

Quinn said all groups that want money from the approximately $20 million speaker's discretionary fund will have to go through the Request for Proposal (RFP) process.

"The RFP process is flawed, and it tends to favor the large, well-funded groups that can hire grant writers," Fidler said. "It's this ladder process for the use of discretionary funds that really funds the local CBOs [community-based organizations)] that aren't quite as fancy or ritzy. You know, if they don't win the RFPs ..." he added, before trailing off.  read more »

One City Councilman is defending Christine Quinn from today’s revelation that her staff misreported how taxpayer money was actually being spent. Quinn said money that went to non-existent charitable groups actually functioned as a rainy-day fund and ultimately wound up funding legitimate groups. It's a practice that appears to have predated her tenure as speaker.  read more »